


And so it Goes

by Katseester



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Love Confessions, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 14:05:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3384422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katseester/pseuds/Katseester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A progression, in moments, of how Kotetsu falls in love.</p>
<p>Set in the time-lapse between episodes 13 and 14.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And so it Goes

**Author's Note:**

> Look at me, posting this just before The Rising gets released.
> 
> Everyone needs to buy 5 copies so we get a second season.

"We're alive," Kotetsu says, when they're finally alone, bruised and aching and holed away in the back hallways of the Apollon Media building, finally free of the press and the prying eyes, finally free of the endless _questions_. "We're alive." And then he laughs, because _g_ _od_ , does it feel good to be alive.

Barnaby smiles, something Kotetsu is still getting used to, and he thinks that maybe it's because Barnaby is finally free of something else, something he has been carrying with him for far too long. Something that is heavy and hurtful and loath to let go.

Kotetsu feels an odd stutter in his chest, something entirely different from the ache he's been feeling ever since he woke up hours ago - God, was it only hours? It feels like days. He's tired. He's exhausted. He's on the verge of collapsing and he's pretty sure blood is seeping through his clothes, but his heart is doing a funny little jump-flip at the soft expression on Barnaby's face and he's almost entirely sure it's an expression directed at him, which just makes him more flustered.

"Thank you for trusting me," Barnaby says, and Kotetsu knows that this is something meant for his ears alone.

He nods his understanding and makes for a casual pose, but he twists the wrong way and something at his side feels like it's stabbing its way into his gut.

"Oh," is what he says, and then he passes out.

\---

He wakes up groggy and not much worse for wear; his head is throbbing something awful but it no longer feels as though a hot poker is tucked neatly underneath his ribs.

"Where am I?" is what he tries to say. "Whe agh mm," is what comes out of his mouth.

Something is warm on his arm. It only takes his vision a moment to clear when he turns his head.

"What are you doing on my arm, Bunny?" is what he wants to say. "Wha ahdo mmgh," is what he actually says.

It dawns on him that he's maybe a little drugged up.

The drugs pull on his mind and his eyes feel heavy, and in no time at all he's asleep again.

\---

The next time he wakes up it doesn't take him nearly as long to gather his surroundings. The throbbing in his head is no less painful, insistently pulsing somewhere behind his crown.

"Ah," he says thickly, blinking up at the white tiled ceiling and annoying flourescent light.

"Kotetsu?" says Barnaby's voice somewhere to the right. Kotetsu turns to look, but it only serves to increase the throbbing and dot his vision. "You should have told me how badly you were hurt."

"I hit my head, didn't I?" he says accusingly, squinting to clear his vision of the overhead light. "You didn't even catch me, did you?" He's pleased to note that his words are less muddled, and he only slurs a few consonants.

"I - that's not the point!" Barnaby's grip on his arm (or is it his hand? Kotetsu can't tell through the fuzz in his brain) tightens, just a fraction, before releasing entirely.

"I was worried," Barnaby says, quietly, so quiet that Kotetsu's not sure he even heard it.

A few thoughts come to Kotetsu's mind: _Aw, Bunny-chan, you really do care!_ or, _It's no big deal, really,_ or maybe even, _I didn't know it was that bad, sorry,_ but what he ends up saying is none of those.

"I'll try not to do it again," he says, closing his eyes and breathing in deep, slow breaths.

"You're an idiot," Barnaby says, but he's smiling and Kotetsu is only a little proud that he can tell by the tone of his voice. "Get some rest now, before you kill yourself."

Kotetsu hums lightly. "We're alive," he mumbles, then laughs softly. "We're alive."

\---

"So, you and Handsome, huh?" Nathan asks casually, examining a nail and pointedly not looking at Kotetsu.

"What?" Kotetsu says.

"Oh, so you aren't?" Nathan asks, drooping a bit.

"Aren't what?" Kotetsu says, befuddled.

"Nevermind, it's obvious you aren't," Nathan sniffs, a little put out.

It takes Kotetsu another eight hours, but it finally clicks into place when he's squinting up at a discoloured tile on the ceiling.

"Oh," he says, and because he has nothing better to do, he calls Nathan.

"It's two in the morning," Nathan says when he picks up. "You'd better have a good reason for this."

"I don't know if Bunny and I are..." Kotetsu doesn't know how to say it.

"Obviously," Nathan snorts. "Honestly, you two are the thickest pair I have ever seen." And then he hangs up.

\---

"Bunny, are we...?" Kotetsu doesn't know how to say it.

"Are we what, Kotetsu?" Barnaby asks, handing him a styrofoam cup of coffee, and the use of his given name makes his chest do that stuttering jump-flip again. "Are you sure you're allowed to drink this?"

"Yeah, I asked the nurse this morning." Kotetsu pretends this isthe truth and takes a sip.

He was married once. He understands what's happening.

"Hmm," Kotetsu says to himself.

"Is it not good?" Barnaby asks.

It takes him a moment to realize he's talking about the coffee. "Ah, no, it's fine," Kotetsu assures him, taking another swig to prove his point. It scalds the back of his throat and he spits it out, all down his front.

Barnaby passes his palm over his face. "I'm leaving," he announces, scraping his chair back and standing up. "I'm not going to be involved when the nurses find you."

"Bunny, you heartless - gah!" His wild gesturing is perhaps a bit too excited, pulling at his side and making him wince, curling in on it to protect the hurt.

Barnaby is at his side in an instant. "Are you alright?" he asks, gently prying the coffee cup from Kotetsu's hand before he can do more damage.

"Fine, I'm fine," Kotetsu grunts, trying to wave him away. Already the pain is subsiding, but Barnaby is persistent.

"I'm sorry," he says lowly, as if he's worried Kotetsu will jump up and start dancing madly around. "I shouldn't have provoked you like that. I'll call for a nurse." Barnaby turns away to press the aid button, and Kotetsu notices the flutter of long eyelashes over his cheeks as he blinks.

Kotetsu stares at him. "You know what," he says faintly. "I think I am."

Barnaby frowns. "You're what?"

"Nothing, nothing," Kotetsu says. "It's not important."

\---

"What's this?" Kotetsu asks, eyeing the brown paper bags clasped in Barnaby's hands suspiciously. They smell good. He wonders if Barnaby is the type to flaunt his eating priveleges in front of the injured.

"It's not for you," Barnaby says, giving Kotetsu a look. "You know you're not allowed to eat it."

Kotetsu curses.

Barnaby takes his seat at the side of the bed. "I just thought," he says slowly, as if unsure of his next words. "Well, you mentioned your mother and daughter...coming for a visit, and I just thought that, well, your mother might be a little hard-pressed for time given the current circumstances and, ah..." he trails off, cheeks a little red, staring at his lap.

"Bunny," Kotetsu says, taken aback. Barnaby frowns at this.

"I thought I told you not to call me that," he murmurs, but there's no real venom in his voice.

What Kaede knows is that her klutz of a father fell down about five flights of stairs after work one day, so her sympathy is a little contrived.

"Dad, don't do that," she admonishes when he tries to steal a dumpling, rapping his knuckles smartly with her chopsticks. "You know you're not allowed."

"Gee, wonder where I've heard that before," he grumbles, rubbing his hand.

"What was that?" his mother asks sharply, shooting him a look.

"Nothing, nothing."

"Where did you get these, anyway?" Kaede asks around a mouthful of dough. "They're really good!"

"What did I say about talking with your mouth full?" his mother scolds.

"One of daddy's friends from work came to visit earlier," Kotetsu says easily. It's not a lie. Not really.

"Tell him we said thank you," his mother says, though she refrains from eating any of the food.

\---

"Mom," he says not much later when Kaede has gone for a bathroom break. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize to me," she says shortly, packing up the leftover food and garbage. "Kaede was worried sick when she heard the news. She cried all night." She sighs. "I just wish you were safer, for her sake as much as yours."

"You know I can't do that," Kotetsu implores, ignoring the hollow ache growing in his chest.

"I know," she sighs. "Just remember that you have a daughter who's growing up."

\---

He's released from the hospital in the next couple of days and the only person who's there to greet him is Barnaby.

He's going to give Antonio hell for this later.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Barnaby asks, hovering over his shoulder.

"I'm fine," Kotetsu says, harrumphs, really. "It wasn't my legs that got broken. It's not like I'm some old man in a wheelchair."

Barnaby stifles a laugh behind his hand. Kotetsu looks at him weirdly. He thinks, at this moment, that he would like to kiss Barnaby.

He doesn't, of course, but the thought is still there and it follows him all the way home.

\---

Nathan, as it turns out, is utter crap in regards to love advice.

"Just tell him," he says, looking at Kotetsu like this isn't something that needs to be explained. "Go up to him and say, 'I'm in love with you, and I'd really like to take your firm ass and' - "

Utter crap at love advice.

\---

He's been attending physiotherapy sessions for the past month now; he doesn't like to admit it, but Jake did a number on him.

His physiotherapist is a nice woman. Middle-aged, temples dotted salt-and-pepper here and there among a sea of red flyaway curls. Calm, patient, encouraging. Her name is Jane.

"Have you been doing your exercises this week, Kotetsu?" she asks, checking over his file.

"Yes ma'am," he replies, which is almost the truth. A few of the exercises he found too difficult and opted to repeat the previous ones instead.

"Alright," she says, raising an eyebrow at him, perhaps sensing his dishonesty. "Has he been doing his exercises?" she asks Barnaby instead.

Barnaby ignores the pleading looks Kotetsu is shooting at him. "Most of them. I believe he had some difficulty with a couple you assigned last week."

"Which ones?" she asks, flipping a couple pages over.

"This one here," he says, tapping a spot on the paper. "And this one." Another tap further down the page. Damn him.

"Understandable," Jane says, chewing at the inside of her cheek. "Can I see your arm, Kotetsu?"

She pokes and prods at him while he glowers at Barnaby behind her back.

\---

"You can do it," Barnaby says, deadpan from behind the cover of his book.

"Thanks, Bunny," Kotetsu grits out, staring holes into his elbow, willing his arm to bend. It kind of does, but not really. He curses.

He's taken to doing these exercises at home. While there was a sort of solidarity with Keith and Antonio - comparing who got the worst of it, showing off how much progress they'd made - he prefers the privacy.

Besides, Barnaby's much nicer when the others aren't poking fun at him for helping Kotetsu. "We're partners," he had sniffed when Karina had asked whether they had moved in together yet. "Partners help each other."

Still, Kotetsu thinks that Barnaby has probably been at his house more than his own apartment in the last couple weeks. He tries not to let that please him too much, since it's hard enough trying to get his damn arm to _move_ without the thought flitting around in his mind, distracting him.

The next morning he stumbles downstairs to put the coffee on and Barnaby is asleep on his couch, various books strewn about the floor around him.

"Bunny?" he says, pausing at the bottom of the stairs. Barnaby doesn't stir. He shrugs, and makes his way to the kitchen.

Barnaby wakes up about halfway through breakfast preparations, appropriately confused.

"I guess I fell asleep," he admits sheepishly, rubbing at the side of his neck, just under his ear.

Again the thought of kissing him passes through Kotetsu's mind, and he wonders why he doesn't remember going upstairs to bed.

\---

He's worked himself up to this moment for a week now. He's cleaned every corner of his townhouse, washed every article of clothing he owns, opened the windows for good measure just to air the place out. He even went to the barber for a trim.

To Barnaby it's just a friendly meal with a coworker. To Kotetsu it's the most nerve-wracking evening of his life, and he's utterly terrified that he's going to screw it up.

Barnaby arrives and he almost bites his own tongue off with nerves, but things proceed smoothly until after they're done eating.

This is it. This is the moment. Do or die. To the moon or bust.

"Barnaby, I - " he says, then cuts himself short. Barnaby is looking at him inquisitively, eyebrows quirked, a small, gentle smile adorning his features.

He can't do it.

"Is that a new ring?" he asks instead, pointing at Barnaby's finger. Barnaby frowns.

"No," he says slowly, confused. "Why?"

"Ah, no reason. I just thought it looked different."

Just a friendly meal between coworkers who have kind of moved in with one another over the past month.

Kotetsu wants to scream.

\---

Phone calls with his mother have gotten increasingly awkward.

"I haven't seen you on TV lately," she says one night while doing the dishes. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine, mom," he replies. "Look, I can bend my arm this far now." He shows her just to make a point of it. He doesn't mention that he's been neglecting his abdomen exercises again.

She sighs, and at this exact moment Barnaby exits the kitchen to call him for supper.

"Who's that?" his mother asks, squinting at the screen. "Have you got someone living with you?"

"That's no one," Kotetsu says, and wishes for once that his phone didn't have video display. He waves Barnaby out of his mother's line of sight, and he retreats back into the kitchen.

"He looks awfully familiar," his mother persists. She sighs again. "It's good for you, you know," she says, and it takes Kotetsu a minute for it to click into place, but when it does he splutters indignantly.

"We're not - it's not like that," he protests but his mother gives him that stern look and it shuts him up.

\---

One night he catches Barnaby asleep on his couch, dozing with some book or other on the floor beside him.

He's about to wake him up when he notices that for once Barnaby looks _peaceful_.

He fishes some extra blankets out of his linen cupboard, throws them over Barnaby, who murmurs something sleepily, and goes to bed.

\---

"You're never going to get better if you keep ignoring your exercises," Barnaby berates from behind the cover of a magazine.

"You can be so mean sometimes," Kotetsu complains, settling back into the couch and blatantly ignoring the sheet on the coffee table in front of him. "Besides, I'm almost completely healed. Can't hurt if I skip a few days." He pats himself emphatically on the chest to prove his point.

Barnaby doesn't answer him, and Kotetsu harrumphs before turning to the TV.

A while later Barnaby sets his book down and gets up, and Kotetsu thinks he might be leaving for the night, but he comes around the couch and sits beside Kotetsu.

"I kind of want to watch a movie," Barnaby says awkwardly, and Kotetsu shoots him a look. "It's weird, I haven't wanted to do something like that in a while."

"Okay," Kotetsu says slowly, mentally shuffling through the list of movies he owns and trying to think of one that doesn't somehow involve heroes. He comes up blank.

They end up watching an old classic, and halfway through Barnaby falls asleep.

"This is why you don't watch movies," Kotetsu grumbles, trying to shift Barnaby off of his arm without waking him. Everything from his shoulder down is numb.

Coincidentally, he ends up falling asleep not much later, and wakes up to the fuzzy static from the TV set.

"Hey, wake up," he mumbles, nudging at Barnaby's head, still resting on his shoulder. "Movie's over."

Barnaby makes a complaining noise as he stirs, and Kotetsu thinks, cute, until Barnaby fixes him with a grumpy glare.

"You could have woken me earlier," he grouches, glancing at the time display on his wrist.

"And what, disrupt Sleeping Beauty's slumber?" Kotetsu says, teasing, and immediately regrets it as Barnaby grabs a throw pillow and shoves it in his face.

\---

He earns himself a morning in the hospital by collapsing in the middle of making breakfast - something about not eating properly or resting enough - and his embarrassment is bad enough without Barnaby bursting through his front door a few hours later and nearly throttling him on his couch.

"You need to start eating better," he lectures, once he's calmed down. "You can't just keep eating fried rice all day, especially when you're recovering like this."

"What are you, my mom?" Kotetsu grumbles, and doesn't admit that he's not very savvy on the whole 'healthy' aspect of cooking. Or anything not related to fried rice, for that matter.

Barnaby closes his eyes, removes his glasses, and pinches the bridge of his nose, emitting a long-suffering sigh. His eyes are very green when he opens them again. "This is ridiculous. I shouldn't be having to tell a grown man how to eat properly."

"Hey," Kotetsu protests, stung. "You don't have to go and say something like that, seriously."

"I say it because I'm worried," Barnaby says, exasperated, as if this didn't need explaining.

"What?" Kotetsu says, taken aback at the admission.

Barnaby kisses him then, short and chaste and nervous, almost tangibly so. His lips linger for almost a second too long, ghost over his for the smallest moment when he pulls back, and Kotetsu is almost ashamed to say that he follows after as if pulled along by a lead. He catches himself and sits back in his seat dazedly; Barnaby is looking anywhere but at him, cheeks dusted red and lips drawn tight over his teeth in a self-deprecating grimace.

"I'm - " Barnaby says, just as Kotetsu blurts out,

"I think I'm in love with you."

This stops Barnaby cold, staring at Kotetsu in shock, eyes wide and brows furrowed in confusion. He actually sits down beside Kotetsu on the couch.

"You're _what_?" he asks, barely audible, lips moving only slightly.

"In love. With you," Kotetsu clarifies, before continuing on with this train wreck of a confession. "Don't ask me why because I don't think I'd even be able to tell you, but I couldn't help but notice you have really long eyelashes and when you smile it kind of just hits me right here - " he places a hand over his chest to emphasize his point - "but I never said anything because you're quite a bit younger than I am and I'm just an old man anyways." He laughs a little to try and relieve the tension, but Barnaby is still staring at him with that same deer-in-headlights expression, so he lowers his gaze and scratches the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"But you kissed me," Kotetsu says to his lap. "So I guess you're either really confused or maybe you just wanted to shut me up, but either way I'm - "

"Kotetsu," Barnaby finally says, and that makes Kotetsu shut up and snap his eyes back to Barnaby's face, which is thankfully no longer adopting an expression of consternation. "You're not an old man." He reaches out to place a hand almost hesitantly over Kotetsu's own, lying limp on the rough fabric of his couch cushion, and Kotetsu's heart jumps into his throat, cutting off any squawk of protest he had in mind.

Barnaby is invading his personal space again, far too close for comfort, and Kotetsu almost shies away out of instinct, but Barnaby is quick and insistent, grip tightening on Kotetsu's hand as he leans in for the kill, kissing Kotetsu again. This time Kotetsu has time to kiss back, moving his mouth against Barnaby's and closing his eyes, sighing through his nose as Barnaby presses closer, hand still clasped desperately overtop of Kotetsu's.  
Kotetsu almost jumps out of his skin when something brushes against his hip, but it's only Barnaby, and there's a warmth on his side where he rests his hand before distractedly drawing it up to the side of Kotetsu's face, fingers resting somewhere along his hairline.

Kotetsu thinks that it's been far too long since he's done anything like this; he kind of missed it, really, and kissing Barnaby is nice, if not a little clumsy.

"I guess I could say that I'm in love with you, too," Barnaby says lowly when he draws back, glasses askew and cheeks flushed brightly.

"You _guess_?" Kotetsu says, quirking a brow, and that makes Barnaby flush even more and stutter a bit.

"No, I mean, _yes_ , no, wait, I mean," Barnaby stumbles over his words, and Kotetsu thinks it's kind of adorable, so he chuckles and says,

"I know what you mean."

Barnaby huffs a sigh of indignant relief and Kotetsu kisses him again, long and slow. Barnaby is receptive, tilting his head slightly and only jumping a little when Kotetsu experimentally brushes his tongue against his, then taking the initiative to mimick Kotetsu's actions in something that turns out to be quite enjoyable.

He's a fast learner, Kotetsu is pleased to note, and a surprised noise escapes his throat when Barnaby takes his bottom lip between his teeth and nibbles at it, sensation coursing down his spine and straight to his groin.

"Ah, Bunny," he manages to say, and Barnaby mutters something against the corner of his mouth that sounds vaguely like a complaint, but it's lost when Kotetsu nips back and feels a shudder run through Barnaby's back beneath his palm.

Barnaby has been making his way down Kotetsu's chest with his hands, stopping here and there seemingly to just _feel_ him beneath his fingers, and he's getting dangerously close to the waistline of Kotetsu's trousers; Kotetsu can feel his fingers pressing lightly across his stomach, almost gasps when they brush against his hipbones (he always was ticklish there), and he can feel them resting momentarily in the little niche between his belt and abdomen before roaming upwards again. He's careful of the spots he knows still twinge, being sure to ghost lightly over them whereas he might have pressed down had he not known.

The realization that he's so intimate with Kotetsu's body and yet hasn't touched him like this before this day hits Kotetsu pretty hard over the head, and he has to wonder how long it took for Barnaby to memorize the bruises and cuts.

Not very long, if he knows Barnaby at all.

Kotetsu, for his part, has been trying to explore Barnaby as well, but his jacket has created an obstacle in that it's thick and not very compliant at all.

"Your damn jacket," he murmers against Barnaby's skin, frowning and tugging at it in frustration.

"Oh," Barnaby says, leaning back slightly, then he shucks the thing, taking care to drape it over the back of the couch, refusing to meet Kotetsu's eyes. Kotetsu almost laughs at the ridiculousness of it, but his fingers are aching to touch, so he holds back his amusement in favour of reaching out to rest a palm on the curve of Barnaby's hip, drawing him closer until they're almost nose-to-nose, Barnaby flushed furiously and looking somewhere off the point of his shoulder.

"You're way too cute, you know that?" Kotetsu teases, and Barnaby splutters indignantly, glowering at him from behind those too-long eyelashes. "What, I meant it as a compliment!"

Barnaby sighs, shakes his head, and kisses him.

\---

Nathan, being his confidant in this whole affair, is the first person he calls the next morning.

"So you're probably never going to believe me when I tell you this, but - "  
He's cut off by an excited yell on the other end.

"So, is he any good?" Nathan asks lewdly once he calms down. He can almost see the raised eyebrow and cheeky grin.

Kotetsu hangs up on him.

\---

Barnaby starts giving him cooking lessons on things other than rice. He's not too shabby a teacher, and Kotetsu's not too shabby a cook, so between them they expand Kotetsu's meal repertoire a little and in a more green direction.

\---

"Kotetsu," Barnaby says, and Kotetsu pauses, breathing against Barnaby's hip and taking in the scent of soap and fabric softener.

"You're sure about this," he says, lips brushing against Barnaby's skin, waiting for any sign that he should back off.

"Yes," Barnaby says, and it sounds so much like a whine that Kotetsu can't help but chuckle, which elicits _another_ whine from Barnaby, who hits him lightly across the shoulder.

"Sorry, sorry," Kotetsu laughs, pressing light kisses along Barnaby's hipbone to accentuate his apology, moving until he's positioned just above his groin, then pausing a moment to ready himself.

He kind of has no idea what he's doing.

There's a saying that he for once remembers, something Agnes had shrieked at him over the comm the other day: "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." He's not sure if it actually applies to this situation, but he figures it's close enough and it bolsters his confidence enough to move in, take the waistband of Barnaby's briefs, and pull them down until his cock springs free and almost smacks him in the face.

"You...don't know what you're doing, do you?" Barnaby says flatly, staring down at him through half-lidded eyes.

"Er, no," Kotetsu admits after weighing his options, and Barnaby continues staring at him for another few seconds before _laughing_ , eyes crinkling at the corners and doing nothing to deter his flagrant erection.

"Well at least we're in the same boat here," Barnaby chuckles, and the swelling relief in Kotetsu's chest is so profound that it shocks Kotetsu into laughing alongside him.

"Gotta start somewhere, I guess," he agrees, and then he's touching Barnaby again and Barnaby is making these small, pleased sounds in the back of his throat that may or may not be driving Kotetsu crazy.

\---

His mother finds out because she spots Barnaby's pants thrown haphazardly over the back of the couch during a phone call.

"I was going to tell you, really," he wheedles, balling the trousers up and throwing them in the general direction of the stairs. He tries to ignore his mother's stern look.

"I'm only worried about Kaede," she says at length. "You know how she idolizes him."

"I'll tell her," Kotetsu says, and tries not to wince when his mom shoots him a look of long-suffering. "I _will_."

She huffs out a sigh and runs a hand over her face, and it strikes Kotetsu just how tired she looks.

\---

Kaede doesn't speak to him for a week when he tells her. When he _does_ tell her, slow and careful and as gently as possible, she shrieks, yells at him, and slams the phone down onto the receiver without giving him a chance to explain. He tries to pretend he didn't see the tears in her eyes.

His mother calls him back a few hours later, and after a painful conversation he decides to leave Kaede alone for a bit, at least until she's ready. After all, his mother is there. She's not alone.

When Kaede deigns to speak to him again he's almost run himself ragged out of worry. She doesn't look too happy to see him - not that she normally does, but that's beside the point - but she doesn't start screaming at him again, so he'll take that as a plus.

"I'm really sorry for hurting you," he says gently, because his mother told him how she stayed up all night crying that first day. Kaede refuses to meet his eyes. "I don't have to - if you don't want me to, I won't keep seeing him. If it makes you unhappy."

Kaede's face scrunches up and there's a horrible moment where Kotetsu thinks she might start crying again, but then something seems to smooth over and Kaede shakes her head.

"No," she says, and she finally looks at him. Her eyes are determined and so much like Tomoe's that Kotetsu's throat closes up momentarily. "I don't want that. You love him, right?"

"Ah - yeah," Kotetsu says, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. "I do."

"Then stay with him," Kaede says simply, and Kotetsu's chest feels so much _lighter_. He thinks he might start to cry.

"Thank you," he says, and Kaede gets that look on her face when she thinks he's being really embarrassing.

"Ew, don't start crying," she groans, nose wrinkling, and Kotetsu starts laughing despite himself.


End file.
